Leigh Bardugo’s Grisha trilogy ends with Ruin and Risingand I got to go to the book launch party at The Last Bookstore in Los Angeles to celebrate with the author and her fans. This is also my first time at The Last Bookstore and it is a glorious store. Non-commercial bookstores with personality is super rare these days and I love that this place exist. It was a lot of fun to be there with the YA crowd and fellow Grisha fans.

This year I finally had an excuse to really gussy myself up like a classy mythical broad. I was invited to cover the third annual MYTH Masquerade Ball on May 24th, 2014 at the Los Angeles Theatre in Downtown LA.

Pssst, that’s me in the middle! I bought a wig and took any opportunity to creep on people dressed up as mermaids. I’m not sure if you can tell from my costume, but I was a “Sea Nymph”. As hard as I worked on my costume, it didn’t compare to the glorious outfits people sported at the event. Check out the pictures below to see the marvelous attendees!

Gary Sohmers is one of the founders of Pop Culture Expo in Boston during Memorial Day weekend this year — plus, he is officially the coolest person we’ve had the pleasure of having on the podcast! He spoke to us about his vision for Pop Culture Expo and the industry as he has seen it evolve over the years.

The Lady Geeks have a very in-depth conversation about Frozen (spoiler alert?) in a way that only the Defective girls could. Gizzy B introduced a new segment and also got to hang out with Sean Astin. Fanfic Theatre: HIMYM x Titanic.

Old school arcades are a rare find these days (Dave and Busters does not count) which is why it was a big deal in the Southern California geek world when EightyTwo announced that they were opening a barcade. On their opening weekend, I was invited to a birthday party of a friend’s friend. Normally, I would hide in my cave to avoid social anxiety but this time, I happily accepted the invite so I could waste many quarters!

Comikaze Expo is already on the horizons — on November 1st to the 3rd to be exact! Of course, we will be present, running around, taking photos and filming our video interviews. We will be on the floor and in and out of panels for most of it. If you see us, make sure to ask for a Defective Geeks sticker!

You will probably spot us at panels like All Shapes and Sizes hosted by Leah Cevoli but on the last day of the convention, on Sunday at 5pm, you can see yours truly (the Space Pirate Queen!) seated at a panel called ‘So You Wanna Start a Podcast‘ in Room 308AB with all the greats — Crix Lee and Lawrence Young of Gecken, Vito Lapiccola of Comics on Comics, Chris Gore and Wes Calimer of Geek Hero and 1337 Lounge Live.

In a galaxy far, far away, our Lady Geeks fantasize about the greatest fish tacos that will unite the light and dark side of the Force and will bring peace to the entire galaxy. Because they are that damn good. Also — Thor in Disneyland, finally?!

Admittedly, I arrived at this event pretty late so I won’t be able to give you guys a detailed account of the entire panel. I jammed it from work to get to the Grove and the traffic was horrendous! Still, it was cool to see Marie with Leigh Bardugo (author of Shadow and Bone), Michael DiMartino (Avatar: The Last Airbender) and Seth Hoffman (The Walking Dead) all one one panel. Here are some of my shots from the panel where I stood in the back of the crowd and the autograph session afterwards.